The present invention relates generally to optical devices and methods using such devices, and more specifically it relates to optical devices based on internal conical refraction and methods using such devices in imaging.
Optical devices are used in numerous scientific, technological and industrial activities and in countless applications. For all these optical devices, only a very small number of basic concepts exist. The underlying physical mechanisms used as the foundation of these concepts resort to an even smaller number of generic physical mechanisms. A characteristics of most existing optical devices is that they are based either on the linear properties of geometrical optics, polarization or crystal optics or on the non-linear optical properties, due to material interaction. Only a few optical devices make use of the properties of singular optics.